So, yesterday, while IMing with a friend, something just popped into my head, almost full blown. Parody lyrics to a song I know. Thing is, I couldn’t recall the correct lyrics in order to identify the song, either, just the musical licks of the track. I do know it’s Stevie Wonder, though.
Soon, it was maddening, and my mp3-player brain started throwing similar themes into the mix to "help" me identify it. "It sounds a little like this, too! I think that’s Genesis, or perhaps Phil Collins." I start thinking. That song comes to me, finally "That’s All" (by Genesis, it turns out.) So, I listen to that, and there is some resemblance, but it doesn’t really help.
Then, I decide to simply listen to every Stevie Wonder track I have, and I do so, and finally identify the darn thing. "Higher Ground" Yes, one of his classics, but never one of my favorites, so it’s relegated to a dusty portion of the mp3-player brain, in the playlist of "Played at least once, but barely that".
Song finally identified, I play it, and the lyrics I thought up just fit in, fairly seamlessly. Not an easy song, I have to say, but sometimes you just have to go with what you have. My first thought was to sing it, and make a youtube video, ala Lady Mondegreen (A buddy of mine) but that was such a daunting thought, so I then thought to pawn off my creation TO LM, but she’d have none of it, and rightly so. If it sucks, she’d take the blame, and even if it’s good, then all these other people might write her to do theirs’ and not all of THEM would be good, and creative reputation would be nicely trashed. So, she simply gave me advice and encouragement to do it myself.
Thus armed, I look to Amazon to find a karaoke version of the track, and the first problem I have is that the Karaoke version has a longer form of the song than I have, so I have to write a new stanza or two. (I do know the longer version, and it’s the one you’ll find if you try and Google the lyrics, but the one I have is from his Definitive Collection Cds, and some of those songs are in a shortened form, this being one of them.) New stanzas worked out, and while playing the Karaoke track, I find that in a key portion there is a backing vocal that totally conflicts with what I’m doing. So, I try another version from Amazon, same thing, and another version. This one didn’t have any backing vocals, but it sounded like it was done on "My kid’s first keyboard" or something. Really cheesy, so it won’t work. I call Amazon about this, just to vent that their previews aren’t complete enough to show me if they’d work or not. And dude refunded my money on the spot. (Note to iTunes, Amazon beats your pants off in Customer Service. A: I spoke to real human, B: He listened to me, and offered a solution that would work, even if it wasn’t asked for. That’s how it’s done.)
More advice given on how to simply over-ride the backing vocals are given, so I think I’ll just try. I sing through the song a few times. I get the timing down, the entries, odd rhythms, all of it. And it sounds like crap. I’m a lyric Baritone, and out of practice, to boot. Stevie is a power tenor. Argh. This will sound like CRAP!. And the lyrics really draw a nice picture, I think, very much in keeping with an "Office Space" motif, and I just don’t have access to that. So if I did make a video, it’d look pretty different than the story suggested. I DID think of making a montage video, with stills of the images that would fit, and maybe just a couple live shots of me in places that would work. But truth be told, I have crap for video editing software. (Hello, I’m a PC, and don’t have pre-installed software that matches my creativity.)
Not to mention that Audacity, while it should service my audio needs, is not the most user friendly. (user hostile would apply, except for that it’s free, which is the most user-friendly thing there is.) Thanks to a recent lucky encounter with a college student needing tuition money more than his Wii and games to go with it, I have some pretty nice microphones that would work nicely. And, then again, perhaps TOO nicely. Probably show every mistake and semitone difference without mercy.
So, as a result, I am now giving in. Giving up, quitting the grandiose ideas and just putting the lyrics up here. Perhaps someday I’ll get more courage, or feel more masochistic than I do today, and I will make the video. Then again, I might not.
Better Ground (Roast)
Lyrics by Me
(Sung to the tune of "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder [composer])
Coffee,
Keep on Brewing,
French Roast,
So tasty drinking,
Whoa!
Burned my tongue,
Gonna need to cool it off.
Turkish,
So dark and inky.
Then there’s Icy,
Frappuccino ™,
Mornings,
Keep on coming,
And you’ve got get along.
I’m so darn sleepy, just need another cup,
’cause the last one I had didn’t wake me up,
I’m so glad my honey got me the K-Cup,
Gonna keep on drinkin’,
’til I’m able to move around.
Workers, keep on workin’,
Filers, keep on filin’,
Caffiene needs to keep wakin’,
Cause it won’t be too long,
Oh no
Interns, keep on (what do they do?),
Slackers, keep on slackin’,
Sleepers, can’t keep on sleepin’,
’cause the boss is coming ’round,
oh yeah
I’m so darn sleepy, Just need another cup,
’cause the last one I had didn’t wake me up,
I’m so glad my honey got me the K-Cup,
Gonna keep on drinkin’,
’til I’m able to move around….Whew!
’til I find the right ground,
That’ll keep me up and moving around,
Oh yeah,
Boss’ll see me working, he comes around,
4 o’clock ain’t gonna bring me down (sho ’nuff try)
Irish Cream a sweeter ground
It’s the best friend to have around
FADE
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it!